Lukukamaru, East Sumba. A village without water, without electricity, where families are hungry and can buy almost nothing.
Lukukamaru reveals the immensity of the problems of families from rural areas. A tremendous job to do here so people can have an everyday life. Fair Future Foundation & Kawan Baik Indonesia are going here for the 2nd time. Before we can do anything here and find the best solution, we must prepare and study the terrain.
Access to the village of Lukukamaru is challenging in this rural and very isolated region. No road leads there; on the other hand, they are only paths of stones, earth and very slippery limestone when we pass there with the Truck of Life.
We spend several hours with the villagers to better understand their life problems, their health, and how they live with almost nothing. They have no water or not enough to make coffee. We brought them three twenty-litre jerrycans filled with clean water for their living needs. It’s touching to see them sharing this clean water.
The time we spend together, we take it to ask the right questions, hear their answers, share looks, and moments of silence because it’s frankly touching, but also smiles, laughter and tears with some.
No water, no income, only shower once a week, eat only boiled corn, a little rice when they can buy it, salt, and peppers. For the rest, they get it from the forest, nature, roots and wild green vegetables.
On average, an adult person here can consume only 2-2.5 litres/day for everything: Drinking, eating, cooking, going to the toilet, bathing, washing clothes & sharing the rest with animals.
For the 2nd time, we go to the bottom of the hill to fetch water with them. Over a vertical distance of nearly 400 meters, a slippery stony path leads to the small spring.
It’s still steep, and the stones are still slipping. Children from 5 to 10 years old fetch water with us at the water source. How can this source, so small, suffice for a whole village? The water is neither clean nor sufficient. The trickle of water is tiny! It’s tiring, exhausting, in principle, if you have enough strength, you have to go down there three times a day.
On average, an adult person here can consume only 2-2.5 litres/day for everything
To avoid going down the hill three times a day, using rainwater is the first resource, and families drink it without boiling it. It is also stored in a small 2000 litre tank, largely insufficient for more than 25 families.
Consequences of this life
Fatigue, various diseases, malnutrition, water stress, primarily psychological.
Yes, the problems with water, lack of food and total lack of income are huge here. Water is simply life, and it allows you to do anything. And if we add the fact that the pests have destroyed all the corn crops and the gardens, leaving nothing to the families, it becomes unbearable. These pest attacks are ruining East Sumba’s weak economy, worsening the mental health and affecting the mood of the villagers, and it is additional anguish.
Fair Future and Kawan Baik foundations have been planning for months to do something for this village of Lukukamaru, as for the others. A borehole, a well, and an additional Ferro-cement tank to temporarily fill it with rainwater when it rains. This program would guarantee them much better health, and healthier life, in harmony with their environment.
It was the second day of our work with the inhabitants of Lukukamaru, sharing, discussing, listening and fully understanding the situation in which these families find themselves.
The second day yes, and we are sure there will be many more.
Read the full survey report here
aw/fff-july-2022
Dates of Photos and videos: July 2022 | Location: Lukukamaru, Wairinding, Sumba Timur
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